Fan the Flames
by alexis-elizabeth
Summary: When Adrien forgets to close the portrait when Nathalie comes to get him for school, Nathalie finds it open and finds the peacock miraculous.
1. Chapter 1: PEACOCK MUSICAL

"Oh," Nathalie mumbles to herself. "What did Adrien do to this picture?"

Nathalie had just gotten Adrien out the door. She decided to stay behind to catch up on some work. What with all the akuma attacks messing with Adrien's and Gabriel's schedule. And not to forget to mention the attack they had hosted in the manor themselves.

She was wondering why Adrien was so fidgety and weird when she found him here. He must have gotten the picture off the wall. What exactly could he be doing that caused the portrait to hang off the freaking wall?

Nathalie blows a hair out of her face and goes up to the picture. She loved that kid, but sometimes…

The portrait was of Mrs. Agreste. Nathalie knew her for about five years before she disappeared or whatever happened. Everyone would agree she was the best role model and a good parenting figure. Nathalie thought different.

But as much as Nathalie would love to just leave her portrait hanging off the wall at a weird angle, she knew that she probably most definitely shouldn't. Mr. Agreste will blow his top if he finds it.

I should probably just wait for the Gorilla to get back, she thinks. This is definitely too heavy for me.

"Nathalie!" someone shouts.

Maybe not.

"Just a second!" she almost screams back as she nearly runs to the portrait.

She tries to pick it up and discovers it isn't hanging off the wall, it was on hinges.

She lets go and it swings forward. Nathalie hurries and grabs it before it hits the wall.

"Nathalie!"

"Almost done!"

She goes to push it back when she sees the safe hidden behind it, and someone forgot to close it all the way. Curiosity swells in her. Nathalie bites her lip.

She grabs it without thinking and opens it revealing a number of things: Mrs. Agrestes photo, a pamphlet to Tibet (she remembers that trip), and a… pin.

Nathalie gingerly picks it up. It was beautiful and it looked like it was modeled after a peacock.

"Nathalie!"

Oh, Meryl Streep!

This time she hears footsteps coming down the main staircase.

Panicking and acting mostly out of instinct, Nathalie shoves the pin into her blazer and shuts the safe and portrait as quietly as she can. Nathalie rushes over to the door and stops to start casually walking.

"Nathalie, there you are." Mr. Agreste says, walking off the final step and straight to her. "What took you so long?"

Nathalie tries to breath normally when she realizes she hasn't caught her breath yet.

"Just paperwork."

Mr. Agreste looks her up and down.

"You need to start taking better care of yourself. Your hair is all out of order. Go fix it."

"Yes, sir." she says and walks away before he can talk to her any more.

Mr. Agreste's phone rings and he answers it, seeming to forget he needed Nathalie for something.

"... can you imbeciles…"

Nathalie rushes to her room and slams the door. She lets out a breath she didn't know she had been holding.

Nathalie reaches up her hands and undoes her bun as she walks to her vanity. She sits down at the seat and grabs a hairbrush and more bobby pins.

"Compose yourself." she says to herself in a stern voice.

Nathalie wraps her hair up and twists it back into its perfect bun and bobby pins her bangs to the side.

Nathalie glances her eyes to her red streak. She touches it.

I really need to get that redone.

Looking at her phone, Nathalie sees that she doesn't have anything to do for thirty minutes.

I could take a nap.

It was a little counterintuitive to do her hair now that she thought of it.

Nathalie shrugs off her blazer and goes to throw it over the chaise, but then the pin falls out and clinks to the ground. Nathalie sucks in a breath; she had forgotten about that.

She picks it up and looks at it again. It was really pretty. She might as well. She would put it right back. It didn't hurt for her to try it on first.

Nathalie pins it to her shirt. That's when something pink and small explodes in front of her.

Nathalie falls back onto her butt and hits her head against the chair. She rubs it as she sits up and sees something materialize in front of her.

It was small. It was blue. It had little chubby appendages. It had a tail of feathers.

But none of that registered in Nathalie's brain. All she thought was: ahhhh!

"Ahhh!" she screams and crawls back into her bed. She bumps into the board then scrambles to climb onto the mattress. Finally, she gets to the front of her bed and throws the covers on her.

Nathalie hides there a few minutes, then, feeling it was safe to come out, lifts the covers.

The thing was right in her face.

"Hey," the thing says in a high-pitched voice. "Thanks for giving me some prep time. The one thing I hate about being stuck in there until a wearer opens it is that I don't have any prep time! But, since you hid your eyes for awhile, I had plenty of time to make a slideshow on your tablet and create a whole dance number!"

Nathalie blinks. It was talking. It just talked.

"You… you talk?"

"Duh, now do you want to see the dance number or the slideshow first?"

"But…"

"Dance number it is!"

The thing flies over to the middle of Nathalie's room and starts dancing. This was the last straw for Nathalie's brain.

"Oh, Samuel L. Jackson!"

"So… you… have a kwami and have no idea what to do. Well good thing you have me so I can give a clue…"

"My name is Duusu! I am a pretty blue! I don't come with an instructions, but neither do you.

By the time I'm done, you'll be a guru.

I now belong to you!

With me you can be a superhero

You've done it kid, you've won the lotto!

With other miraculous holders you can save Paris

I'm sure you'll do great once you've had practice…

My name is Duusu! I am pretty blue!

Together we can all defeat…"

"Who is the bad guy this time?"

"Pap… papillon."

"The papillion! Oh yes, we will defeat that villain!

My name is Duusu! I am a pretty blue! With me… you… can… be a su...per...her...ooooooo!"

Duusu stops with an ending pose. Nathalie just has her mouth hanging wide open.

Duusu notices her face and starts to tear up.

"You... don't… like me… do you. Wahhh!"

Duusu starts sobbing. Nathalie had no idea what was going on, but she knew she had to stop this loud crying thing.

"I… I just don't know what the heck is going on."

Duusu perks up and flies into Nathalie's face.

"Do you want me to do the dance number again?"

"No!" Nathalie shouts, but composes herself.

Duusu's eyes tear up again.

"I mean, you can show me that powerpoint thing you did." Nathalie suggests.

Duusu looks up instantly without a tear in her eye.

"So, what you're telling me is that you are a kwami." Nathalie says, placing down the tablet and getting off of her bed.

"Yep."

"This… this pin I found is a miraculous." Nathalie clarifies, now pacing around her room.

"Yepperdoodles."

"With it I can turn into a superhero like Ladybug and Chat Noir."

"You're getting it."

"To save Paris from akuma's?"

"Do you want to go over the dance number again?"

"No, I'm good, thanks." Nathalie says, sitting on her chaise and wringing her hands through her hair.

Duusu flies over to her and looks at Nathalie's face.

"Are you okay? Usually people start feeling excited by now."

Nathalie looks up at Duusu from between her fingers.

"No! I'm not okay!" Nathalie says in the calmest voice she can.

Duusu covers her ears and zooms back a little.

"But you're the chosen one." Duusu says, trying to comfort her.

Nathalie stands up.

"No I'm not. I saw it in my boss's safe and grabbed it because I panicked and now I'm going to get fired because I didn't even try to return it right away I tried it on because it was pretty…"

Duusu bumps into Nathalie.

"Pull yourself together."

Nathalie blinks and looks up.

"What are you doing?"

"Trying to slap some sense into you, but I'm too small and I have little arms."

"Oh… well, thank you."

"Don't mention it." Duusu waves it off. "But this does cause a bumper in our relationship. We usually choose children."

"Why?"

"I don't know. Something about them being more accepting of it and bonding to the magic more. We had a council meeting about it a millenia ago. Then someone brought up that they were children and that it was dangerous. I just love how dramatic it is for the kids to sneak away and lie to everyone they know."

Nathalie laughs nervously.

"So, maybe I should just put you back…"

"No!" said Duusu. "I've been stuck in that miraculous for ages. Besides, this makes it so much more mysterious. Adult sneaks away from job and everyone she loves to be a superhero."

"Uhh… the first part is correct. But I don't really have loved ones."

"Darn it. Love life at all?"

"No."

"Children?"

"No."

"Anyone?"

"Well, I have my boss's child I look after."

"Good enough."

"Wait a second! I'm not talking to a floating object that isn't really there."

Nathalie walks backwards into her chair, then sits down.

Duusu rolls her eyes and flies to Nathalie's face. She pokes it.

"I think I'm plenty real."

"Ok, ok. I can't deal with this right now. I have a meeting in…"

Nathalie sighs and looks at her phone.

"Ahh!" she screams. "I'm late to Mr. Agreste's meeting with the CEO of Chanel!"

Nathalie throws on her Blazer and fixes the fly aways in her hair and sprints out the door.

"Don't forget your tablet!" Duusu screams, struggling to pick it up.

Nathalie zooms in and grabs it, then zooms back out.

"Don't forget me!"


	2. Chapter 2: I SEE LONDON I SEE FRANCE

Wayzz sits down in his drawer waiting for Master Fu's patient to leave. I hate being stuck in here. He thinks, huffing.

All of a sudden, Wayzz sits up and feels a chill go up his spine.

"Master!" he whispers, flying out of the drawer before remembering a guest was there.

Wayzz zips behind Fu's head out of sight of the patient.

"Are you doing that 'Master' chant again? What does it do?" the patient asks.

"Just healing of the… kidneys. I suddenly have something very important, so would you excuse me?" Fu says and he pushes the guy out the door.

"This is the second appointment in a row…"

"I know, I am very sorry. My sister's dog is having a diabetes attack. Family emergency."

"That isn't even-" SLAM!

"You have to stop doing that, Wayzz," Fu says, turning to his kwami.

"Master, a miraculous has been activated!"

Master Fu's eyes widen and he lets out his arm for Wayzz to land on.

"Which one?" he asks eagerly.

"Duusu's. The peacock miraculous."

Fu walks in circles thinking, then turns back to Wayzz.

"She's been missing for a while. Can you tell who activated it."

"No, master. But I can tell you that Duusu's miraculous isn't being used for evil… yet."

"Yet." Master Fu says bitterly.

* * *

"It was nice meeting you, Alaine," Gabriel said, shaking hands with the CEO.

"You too, Gabriel. I hope we have collaborations in the future." Alaine says back, sticking his hands in his pockets.

"If you ever need me, call Nathalie, my assistant. She will give you her contact information."

"I remember when Coco Chanel was actually alive," Duusu whispers to Nathalie from her breast pocket.

"Shh," Nathalie whispers back, covering Duusu with her hand. "What are you even doing here?"

"I have to stay with you in case an akuma attacks," Duusu replies, sticking her head back down.

This makes Nathalie remember why Duusu was really here. I had to be nosy, and now I'm 'chosen' to defend Paris.

"What makes you think…"

"Nathalie," Gabriel says, making Nathalie snap her head up.

Duusu buries deeper into her pocket. Nathalie's cheeks burn pink, wondering if he had heard her seemingly talk to herself. Nathalie walks up to the two designers.

"Yes, sir."

"Give this gentleman the contact information," Gabriel says. "Excuse me."

Gabriel walks away, and Nathalie mentally goes through his schedule wondering what he could be going to.

Nathalie turns back to Alain, who was talking to his own assistant. He turns to her.

"Mr. Agreste said you would be able to give me your contact information so I could contact him later."

"Yes, sir. I have it right here."

"Excellent," Alain says, then looks around. "Where is Karl?"

"The old bugger is still alive?" Duusu whispers.

"What was that?" Alaine says, swirling back to Nathalie.

Nathalie tries to focus on blood not rushing to her face.

"I didn't say anything, sir." she replies.

"Excuse my old ears," he says, then turns to his assistant. "Please collect the information for me, Georgia."

"Yes, sir," Georgia says, then turns to me.

Before I can tell Georgia the information, screams erupt outside. An older man runs in the doors and stops in front of Alaine.

"Karl!" Alaine shouts. "What is going on?"

"I am Therian! No one will harm animals again!"

"Talking about how much I loved the giraffe print. Intern went berserk. Daughter of PETA or something. Akuma." Karl says, then faints.

Nathalie rushes forward to catch Karl, but Alaine beats her to it.

"Everyone, run!"

Nathalie stands there for a second before deciding to run to Mr. Agreste's office. She wanted desperately to hide, but she had to find him first. Her job always was first.

"Mr. Agreste!" she yells into his office.

When she hears no reply, she moves on to different rooms.

"Nathalie! You need to go hide so you can transform." Duusu says, exiting Nathalie's pocket when she sees the coast is clear.

Nathalie skids to a stop. Surely Ladybug and Chat Noir had this handled. This was no different than other akumas. There was no reason to go through the terrifying experience. Especially since she planned on declining Duusu later.

"I… I can't," Nathalie says.

"What do you mean you can't?" Duusu says, narrowing her eyes.

"I still haven't comprehended all of this, and frankly, I was going to decline your offer."

"It wasn't an offer." Duusu scoffs. "You are the chosen one."

"We went through this, I'm not the chosen one. I stole you from a safe!" Nathalie says.

"I don't believe in coincidences." Duusu states.

"But…"

"Arghhh!" someone growls and a beam narrowly misses Nathalie's head.

Nathalie slowly turns around to see what she guesses was the akuma. It was an animal, but not one Nathalie had ever seen. It looked like a mixture of many, and frankly, looked like a furry. Nathalie shivers.

Nathalie bolts to the nearest room and slams the door. Ladybug and Chat Noir will be here soon and they will fix everything. There was no need for her to go out there and make a fool of herself, or put herself through that terrifying experience.

"Nathalie!" Duusu screams at her. "You need to transform."

Nathalie breathes deeply and goes through every argument in her head in under ten seconds.

"I really can't, ok? I'm a coward. I can't do this." she finally says.

Duusu grabs what she can of Nathalie's shoulder and starts crying.

"Nathalie! Nathalie darling! You need to go on!" Duusu screams.

"Why are you talking in a southern..."

"I know it is hard, but your mama needs ya darling."

"You're not…"

"It's my time to go now…" Duusu says, falling down to the ground, slowly.

"Oh for goodness sakes!" Nathalie huffs.

Then a beam breaks down the door. It takes a few seconds for Nathalie to comprehend that she was found by the akuma and she needed to get out of here.

Samuel L. Jackson!

Nathalie runs to the adjacent door to the office and runs into the hall from there. She sprints with all her might and throws herself into another room.

"I will find Karl and stop everyone from using animals in their fashion!" the akuma shouted.

"Nathalie, darling," Duusu says, getting teary eyed and touches Nathalie's face.

"Are you always so dramatic?" Nathalie asks, fear in her voice.

"I… I feel my heart a breakin. You have broke ya mama's poor heart."

"That doesn't even sound like a southern accent!"

"You need ta decide what ya want in life. Do you want to be a coward and keep runnin through every room, or do ya want to do somethin with yer life?"

Nathalie bites her lip and sighs.

"Fine." she says. "But for the record, I did do something with my life."

Nathalie takes in a deep breath and closes her eyes.

"Duusu, transforme moi."

Duusu flies into the brooch. Afterwards, a blue aura circles her. Nathalie can feel only what she can describe as magic. It flows through her and she feels tingling and momentarily losing gravity. SHe closes her eyes and bites back a small scream.

Nathalie opens one eye hesitantly and glances down. Her clothes seem to be slowly transforming into something else. She gulps when she realizes it is her superhero suit. It was a blue dress the draped down and pooled at the floor, then going back in a train. It was long sleeved too, and she could barely tell that there was a turtle neck, because she was so used to wearing one. She had skin tight spandex on her legs, and she was wearing boots.

Well that was all well and good, but Nathalie wanted to know how this outfit was any better that her suit when it came to fighting. She had no weapons, and if anything, she could fight better in a pantsuit than this floppy dress.

"What am I supposed to fight with?" she asks. Nathalie sighs. Duusu either couldn't hear her, or was ignoring her.

Nathalie breathes in-and-out and tries to calm herself. Not only did she barely transform to fight, but she has nothing to fight with. Ladybug has her yoyo, and Chat Noir has a bo staff.

At this point, I'd take a stick. Nathalie thinks. She looks around and realizes she is in the sports room. She zooms over to a closet as she gets an idea.

Nathalie may not have a magic yoyo or bo staff, but she does have a mundane baseball bat.

She hoists it up and looks out into the hall on the defensive. Looking both ways, she zooms through the halls until she gets outside.

She expected the same furrie as before, but instead, there was a ten foot rhino is the plaza.

Nathalie does what most people would do, she screams, drops the baseball bat, and runs towards the door. Unfortunately, Nathalie chooses that time to trip over her ridiculous dress. But, on the plus side, she ends up floating. Another down side, the rhino heard her yelp and was now staring at her, and Nathalie doesn't know how to get down.

Nathalie finally grabs the door and tries to swing herself around to no avail. That's when she heard a foot scraping itself against the concrete. And that's when she realized she should find out how to get back on the ground.

Nathalie tries to push herself down using the door, but she ends up just turning around again. Just in time to see her impending death.

The rhino is charging towards her. All Nathalie can think to do is scream as she hears a crash. It takes her a moment to realize that it never hit her.

Nathalie opens one eye at a time to see the sky in front of her with buildings littered everywhere.

No. No. No. she thinks. Nathalie looks down and her face flushes green. She snaps her head back up.

Oh,

Duusu didn't tell her she could fly!

I probably wouldn't have accepted then.

Nathalie tries to lean forward and ends up doing a front flip in the air.

"Oh, come on!" she screams in frustration.

That's when she turns upside down and her dress covers her face. Nathalie could only hope this suit has underwear.

Chris Pratt!

"What are you doing, hanging around here?" she hears a cocky voice say.

"Mmmhmmmmhhhmm." Nathalie mumbles, her dress muffling her words.

"I heard there was an animal akuma, but all I see is a floppy dressed one. Guess they were kitten."

"I don't know who you are, but I'm not an akuma." Nathalie says, using her hands to move her dress out of her mouth.

"Well, I'm Chat Noir." Chat Noir says. "Then who are you? And how are you seemingly floating…"

"Stop dilly dallying, Chat Noir! What are you doing up there?" an annoyed voice says.

Nathalie could only guess it was Ladybug.

"Can someone help me up?" Nathalie finally pipes up, annoyed. Chat Noir rubs the back of his head sheepishly.

She feels hands on her legs pulling her down to the ground. Her dress falls back over her head. Nathalie looks down to see she is still floating, but at least she wasn't hanging by her legs.

"Thank you." Nathalie says as calmly as she can. Hanging in the air for five minutes didn't help her fear of heights.

"I see London, I see France, I saw someone's underpants!" Chat Noir says.

Nathalie goes bright red.

"Listen…" Nathalie says, trying to turn and face him. "Listen… Whoa!" she wobbles back and forth.

Chat Noir leans forward on his staff and turns her around.

"Listen... Thank you… here. I will not be made fun of by a teenager in tight leather!"

"Chat Noir!" Ladybug screams at him. "We have to find the akuma! And who is that?"

Chat Noir gives her a thumbs up.

"Just a second milady."

He turns to Nathalie.

"Grab my hand." he says.

Nathalie leans forward hesitantly and grabs his hand. Chat Noir's staff shrinks and leads them down back to the ground. Nathalie wants to kiss the ground once her feet touch the ground.

"Wait." says Ladybug. "Are you a…"

"I… I think so." Nathalie says.

"You're a bit older… Ow!" Chat Noir goes to say, but Ladybug elbows him.

Nathalie goes to speak, but then she hears a shriek. She turns around to see the akuma, now a hawk, flying straight for them.

* * *

 **Hey!**

 **Sorry this took forever. Senior year is a hassle. Most of this was typed in creative writing. Please review!**


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